Fix It If It's Broke: Client&nbspRecovery

This YouMoz entry was submitted by one of our community members. The author’s views are entirely his or her own (excluding an unlikely case of hypnosis) and may not reflect the views of Moz.

It happens. Even to the best.

The job is completed, all deliverables have been delivered (and perhaps a few thrown in to build goodwill), and the client is still not happy.

The small business owner relies on repeat business for long-term success and a disgruntled client is NOT going to build your client base. In fact, a dissatisfied client won’t recommend your services (the best sell in the world – a personal recommendation), but that unhappy client is going to bad mouth your company at every conference, seminar, luncheon, and high-level business meeting.

You know that’s gonna hurt. So, can this relationship be saved? Indeed, it can. And as the company owner whose a$$ is on the line, you better get started ASAP.

1. Before the project, ensure that all parties (including sub-contractors) are on the same page. The client and professional team both know what to expect at the end of the business agreement.

Look, if one party or the other is searching through the files for the contract, you’ve already got problems. Somebody isn’t happy. At least a statement of work (SOW) produces realistic expectations.

2. Be proactive. If you discover the typos before the client, contact the site owner immediately. “We caught it. We’ll fix it. No worries.”

3. When the mistake is discovered, take over. If you’ve been using a client rep to manage things, getting the boss on the phone goes a long way to improving a bad situation.

4. Isolate the client's dissatisfaction. What, exactly, has his knickers in a twist? Get the client to provide examples that aren’t “right.” Then, find out why they aren’t right.

5. Ask the client how she would like you to resolve the problem. The objective here is to engage the client in the solution. Rather than just saying we’ll fix it, make sure the client has a stake in whatever changes are required.

6. Determine how much you can “eat.” If you’ve got a couple of hundred very expensive man hours tied up in a site design, development, launch, and SEO, you can’t walk away with nothing. In this case, figure your bottom line, break even, and court the client to return with his next project. You’ve just created a great salesperson as well.

I’ve given content away. It didn’t take thousands of man hours, it wasn’t what the client was looking for (too conversational, too academic, not academic enough, etc.), so instead of having someone giving me the digital stink-eye, “Take it. If you can use it, it’s yours. If not, toss it.” It hurts, but more often than not, those individuals come back with another project.

It’s happened more than once. And that’s not counting unsolicited referrals.

Fix it if it’s broke. It’s far-horizon thinking and a proven pathway to business growth.

This is perhaps the one area I think most small agencies get wrong...or at least the ones I've worked with and for. Cash flow is important for a small business, sure, but loyal clients are infinitely important in the long term.

A recent freelance project of mine ran over budget. The client hadn't explicitly mentioned some functionality that he assumed would be built into the site. The programmer had built the site to spec. The client claimed he had made the functionality clear in our first meeting. My notes said otherwise, as did the contract.

I had a client who was getting anxious about his launch date and a programmer asking for more money to finish.

I could have gone back to the client, brought his attention to the contract in which said functionality was cleary not included and asked him to cough up the money. I'm sure he would have complied - he had little choice, really.

Instead, I ate the cost. It wasn't significant ($350). I just gave it to the programmer immediately out of my own pocket to keep the project rolling.

We didn't hit the target launch date as some other complications arose. But we came pretty close.

A few weeks later, I received a Christmas card from the client. In it he explained that since we launched the new site his sales had gone up 40%. He'd enclosed a check in the amount of $300 - "something extra" to express his thanks for a job well done.

Certainly a rare turn of events, but it illustrates the point. For $50 I kept a client happy - happy enough to keep coming back and send referrals my way.

Lucky you Mike. But you are talking about a best case scenario. The project is almost on a verge of overshoot and a suttle requirement change happens (bigger then what we can bear from our pocket) things can get pretty intense. Not all the clients are as courteous (like in your case). Some are already working on tight budgets. I such a situation, the question I ask myself - Is the client worth losing the amount of money? If it's so, there are no second thoughts. I prefer losing money than the client. But there are types of clients you must get rid off asap before you hurt your reputation or finances. Simple as that.

Agreed. This was certainly a rare case, and granted there was not much money at stake here. Had it been $3500 it would have gone quite differently.

I also recently ended a business relationship with a client who apparently thought my rate was too high and argued that they had "asked around" and it should be half what I was charging. I wished them luck.

A favorite: "you don't pay me to push buttons; you pay me to know which buttons to push."

And the old story, told in many variations, of the consultant who traveled around the world to help fix a boiler that would not run in a major facility.

Upon arrival he examined the boiler for a few moments. Then he gestured to a man nearby, "you there - get a sledge hammer and hit the boiler right here," pointing to the boiler. The man did as he was told and everyone rejoiced to hear the boiler fire up.

I have been lucky for the most part. I now basically have my own company I manage the website for along with 1 client so these days I don't have any one to make happy.

Back when I did have a decent size client base and needed new clients to make ends meet I still had the luxury of telling clients to take a hike. Some clients are impossible to please, especially when they want $2000 websites for $200.

One thing I have learned over the years is most clients perception of what they want changes as you build their sites making it tough to please them all.

I personally prefer to over quote by saying it will cost between X amount and Y amount. So if I get it first go it will be X amount and if they become difficult to please the Y amount will cover it.

If I tried to make every client of mine happy out of my own pocket I would have been tossing potentially several thousand dollars a year out the window.

If you have any bad feeling about your prospective client and your gut tells you not to take on the project, then leave it. Sometimes it is tempting to stay when you secured a nice price for your hard work, but still... it may cost you much more in the end.

Moondog, it is great that you don't have to deal with many clients. You can focus and do what you are the best at.

Yeah, I did that for quite a few years and was happy with one major client and a couple of smaller regulars. No headaches.

Then, my main client sold his publishing business and the new owners had their own people so I was pounding sand.

Now I work with 15-20 smaller clients and if one heads south I don't lose any sleep over it, though I do try to recover that client. If I depend on one or two big money-makers and I lose one (and can't recover that big client), I got problems. Spreading my time around keeps accounts in order.

3. Your own online business that slowly becomes profitable. You can use some % of money from 1 & 2 and reinvest it by outsourcing all the development & design. Like a plant - use a bit of water, let others take care of the hardwork, look after and make sure it grows in the right direction.

Do following 3 things to reduce your customer dissatisfaction by 40% (just an approx figure from my experience):

Signup with a reputation check service and be sure to hit them before they hit others. I had been to different forums defending our businesses and it turned out to be a very good conversation ending up in good testimonies.

Start your own forum so that one get all the complains under his own wings before it gets spread. We used to get most of the complaints on our open forums first.

Regular calls to ensure that client is aware of what we do. They will always miss your long detailed mail. They are more comfortable in hearing your voice. We made it mandatory for our businesses.

There are more one can do to ensure this (may be those are business secrets :) ), don't want to spell it. Enjoy!